Certainty vs 'Good Christian Hope'

Catholic belief is that we are not given 100% assurance *now* that we will go to Heaven *at some time in the future*. But we can have *Good Christian Hope* that if I die *now* I will go to Heaven *now* if I have kept in a State of Grace.

I would have told your friend that, if he was not conscious of mortal sin, was praying and receiving the Sacraments, then he was indeed going to Heaven. Did he have the Last Rites? These are there, to heal him if it is God’s Will, otherwise to give him every preparation for the Journey, up to and including a Plenary Indulgence (provided that he had no remaining ‘attachment to sin.’

=

Catholic belief is that it is very dangerous for the soul if I believe I am certainly one of the elect who is going to Heaven, no matter what.

It is an attractive thought, but is it the actual truth? My belief is that it can be extracted from Scripture only by a very heavy selection from the many verses that can be cited both for and against it. It is also comprehensively refuted by the actual life histories of many who believed this, and then fell away. It was the bait that helped recruit the Manichaeans, the Gnostics, the Albigensians, the Moslems, the Calvinists…

As for Works, since I am baptised into the Body of Christ, then Christ works in me. There is no question of my being saved by my works: that is done by the Merits of Christ. But if I use my free will to carry out a good work, then it increases my Merit and my Place in heaven (whatever that actually means). The works themselves count for nothing, but if I do them for the sake of Christ, or for my fellow man for Hs sake, then He attached my works to the infinite merits of His own Passion, and it is thereby that they have merit.

There is a beautiful dialogue between Christ and S. Catherine of Siena on this topic.

She was resolved to spend her time doing penances for the conversion of sinners. But eventually God said to her: "But Catherine, do you not realise that if you performed the most extreme penances for your entire lifetime, the merit would not be enough to atone for even one venial sin? It is when you attach your works to My Passion that they participate in its Infinite Merit. Then I look at the love with which you have offered your penances, and apply the Merits of My Passion to them. It is in this way that you atone for sins". There is nothing that you can give Me that I have not already given you first, starting with your very existence. But I have given you your neighbour. When he is unloving towards you, or in need, and you still help him and offer him love that he has not earned, then I take that as given to Myself, and in that way you truly give Me a gift.